Five pot shops allocated to Ballard in the license lottery. Is this sufficient to meet demand? Will the competition drive prices lower or will they engage in price fixing? Why three on 17th but only one in North Ballard? Will they really be ready to open in July? Is it legal for them to offer free samples? Do they need a good brownie recipe? Curious minds want to know.

My thoughts are that this will locate four stores right in the Central Ballard business area. Maybe I don’t understand the size that they will be, but that seems like a lot (even with all of us condo dwellers). If that results in more car traffic then parking around Market will be even worse (but what do I care – I own my own spot). It seems to me that they could have been spread around the city much better. And just thinking here, someone should take their license and use it to open a high-end MJ bakery. I bet they could do a good business and create a unique niche.

@cate: The reason they are not spread out more evenly is because it truly was a random drawing. I am glad there are local sources though. Legalizing marijuana is one of those things I thought i’d never see happen in this country. I only smoke it maybe once or twice a year but it’s really cool seeing progress happen.

Also, with the distance restrictions from schools, parks, community centers, large parts of the city are off limits. Ballard, like SODO, happens to have some areas that are far enough from polite society for these shops to operate.

My hope is that with legalization we’ll see greater diversity of weed. The occasional smoker may not want high-octane THC weed. Cannabanoids are responsible for a lot of the positive health effects, but has been ignored in favor of breeding strains with more and more THC. I don’t know if these have less CBDs or if just less CBDs are consumed when there is a higher amount of THC. But hey, not everyone reacts well to THC and will want a low-THC strain. Some people might even want those CBDs.

Phoo, I think that is a worry for those that have found medical marijuana helps them. The low THC, high CBD strains that are best for easing many symptoms may become less available because more money can be made from people chasing a high. I guess we will just have to see.

fwiw, if anyone cares, companies that operate under federal rules (think aviation) do test their employees and applicants by federal guidelines. I understand this doesn’t affect all that many people but might be something to keep in mind if you or someone you know is looking for a job.

JR: I suspect it’s a concern that a 4 year old tyke will wander into the marijuana store, the clerk will assume he’s 30 and hand him candy WITH POT IN IT. Won’t someone please think of the children?? I can’t count the number of times little children have gone to a chocolate store and bought chocolates with ALCOHOL IN THEM. Man, worst mistake we ever made to repeal alcohol prohibition. Now there’s a stunning number of alcoholic 8 year olds. I heard they had to put a rehab ward into Children’s Hospital to handle all the cases. If we just made alcohol and all drugs illegal, then no one would get their hands on them and all the children would be safe!

if that 4 year old phoo mentioned above wonders into the kitchen and finds a brownie on the counter, then you’ll clearly have over-medicated toddlers, whose brains probably won’t develop properly.

I think it will also have some severe effects on adults who aren’t accustomed to cannibis consumption and ingest some ‘medible’ at a party, which in my limited experience with such, are more prone to really mess people up for hours on end. it’s very difficult to determine how much ‘drug’ you have taken when it’s in a cupcake.

I agree with GI. There was already that situation where a girl made brownies and her classmates got sick. I think too that candies with alcohol in them are really noticeable, ie you taste the alcohol. I’m not sure you can taste anything in the “medible”, can you?

Granted I don’t have a lot of experience in all of this. I do know that my only experience with this all relates to brownies. I ate one. It tasted good. If I have beer, wine or some mixed drinks (some are really yummy but most are clearly alcohol) I drink it because I like it but it isn’t “omg, I’m starving and this is fantastic”. Anyway, I had several of these brownies because I was hungry, I like chocolate, and I’m kind of a pig. It was a huge mistake.

I’m really not against it all, I just hope good judgement is used. I also hope that as people experiment, they clearly warn other people if they make things with with cannibis in it. I am randomly drug tested and could lose my job. Others that work for my company are in the same position. It would really suck to abide by the rules only to test positive for something that we unknowingly did.

um….PG people leave stuff like meth and guns and other things in the reach of toddlers and babies. I’m not sure something being legal would make a difference, maybe not because if someone was concerned if it was legal or not would also be concerned about safety for their children, but people do idiotic things.

penny, I think before legalization, ‘medibles’ are typically rare to come by. even the casual smoker won’t go through the trouble of making a butter emulsion to create the treats that will be available in the near future.
the market will certainly grow exponentially in the next few months and I don’t think it’s that much a stretch to see some adult snacks left on a plate at a party or ‘hidden’ away in the pantry (when the kids know darn well where to look).
there will just be more of it around, and it will be difficult for teens, let’s say, to appropriately dispense any purloined cookies when there is such a variable in potency.
when we stole a bottle from our parents, we knew how many people should drink it.

I don’t know what ‘medibles’ are as such. All I am saying is people have been making pot brownies since pot was available – the world over.

I think you don’t have a lot of faith in responsible adults. When I say that, I mean people who don’t leave prescription meds lying around or booze unlocked.

And as a quick heads up – weed has been available to underage kids in this area for a long time. Sad, but true. It’s up to the parents to make sure that it isn’t (along with all the other stuff) available in the house.